Tonight news has come down the wire from ESPN’s Dan Rafael that Chad Dawson has hired Emanuel Steward as his new lead trainer in an effort to fix whatever the hell was wrong when Dawson lost to Jean Pascal in August.
Steward replaces Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, who replaced Floyd Mayweather Sr., the man under whom Dawson probably looked his best in the ring. Dawson’s career took a massive hit not just from losing to Pascal, but for doing so in such a puzzling, maddening fashion. Steward, who is most famous for training Thomas Hearns, has been able to breathe new life into careers in recent times. He turned Wladimir Klitschko into the world’s best heavyweight, and while the jury is still out on his work with Miguel Cotto, I think it’s safe to say that Miguel looked a lot more focused against Yuri Foreman than he did essentially training himself to fight Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey.
But Steward also has a major recent failure in the form of Jermain Taylor. Steward was hired to replace Pat Burns after Taylor won back-to-back fights against Bernard Hopkins, and it never clicked. Taylor struggled in a draw with Winky Wright, and didn’t seem his best against supposed soft challengers Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, either. A knockout loss to Kelly Pavlik later, and Steward and Taylor decided to part ways, with the lingering question being whether they ever should have been together in the first place. Steward seemed to have an incredibly hard time getting through to Taylor, which may well not have been Emanuel’s fault at all, but it’s worth pointing out that while Dawson is a terrific talent, so was Taylor, and Steward did nothing with Taylor.
Whether he can “fix” Dawson or not is anyone’s guess. Manny has the reputation of liking tall guys with big jabs and concussive rights thanks to his work with Hearns and Klitschko, but he’s been around the fight game a long time and has the knowledge to work with anyone. With Klitschko, he’s specialized in the old “accent the positives, eliminate the negatives” approach. Dawson doesn’t really seem to have physical flaws. His chin seems sturdy, his speed is good, his grasp on the fundamentals is solid, he’s got decent power. If Manny can succeed with Dawson and Cotto, he could be looked at as a guy who got through to a couple of fighters who seemed to be mentally reeling more than anything.
* * * *
As for Cotto, it all looks set for him to fight Ricardo Mayorga on March 12. It’s a mismatch, because Mayorga — and I love the guy and his silliness and roundhouse right hands and crazy ass left hands from left field, I really do — isn’t very good at all anymore. Mayorga beat Vernon Forrest a couple of times in 2003. But so what? So he was Vernon’s kryptonite in a way. By the time Mayorga gets in the ring with Cotto, that first shocking win over Forrest (one of my all-time favorite upsets) will have been over eight years in the past. Cotto is also probably not what he was a few years ago, but Mayorga, truth be told, was never all that good, just all that brave, all that reckless, all that entertaining, and all that tough. Expect to see Miguel dig in body shots on Mayorga, and God knows what kind of physical shape Ricardo will be in.
Still, it’s good to see Mayorga fighting again. After two years off, which included a failed attempt (or so they say) to have him fight Din Thomas in mixed martial arts, “El Matador” got back in the ring on December 17 and stopped veteran Michael Walker. Ricardo has never lacked for balls, and since he seems to be in a boxing mood, it’s not surprising to see him jump at the chance to fight Cotto, or to hear him call out Manny Pacquiao. I think Ricardo’s just crazy enough to think he can beat anybody through sheer attitude and brass and maybe a couple of wild right hands.
* * * *
Going back to Steward (kind of), a deal has been reached for the son of “Hitman” Hearns, Ronald Hearns, to face Felix Sturm for the WBA middleweight title in Germany on February 19, as reported by BoxingScene.com’s Rick Reeno. Hearns (26-1, 20 KO) is not a real prospect, as he’s already 32 years of age and came to boxing very late in life. In 2009, he was knocked out in nine rounds by Harry Joe Yorgey, but he has come back fairly well from that. Watching him decimate Delray Raines in April in just 1:47 had a bit of that “Hitman” aura about it, but at the end of the day it’s just Delray Raines. This sort of reeks of Sturm business as usual, but with a famous last name attached. So much for breaking free from Universum so he could find the big fights. But I’m happy for Ronald, who seems like a nice guy and someone who has worked hard playing catch-up with his boxing career.
* * * *
In a real shocker, Manny Pacquiao won the Ring’s fan poll for Fighter of the Year. If you put up a poll to let “boxing fans” vote on who was the best baseball player on earth and included Manny Pacquiao, Manny Pacquiao would win. Sergio Martinez has swept every Fighter of the Year award I’ve seen other than this one, which Pacquiao won in a landslide thanks to his insane fanbase. On the one hand, I love that there’s a fighter out there in boxing who can connect the way Pacquiao does. On the other hand, it saddens me the level of blinders put on by a lot of those people. Personally, I emailed a write-in vote for Roy Jones Jr., as y’all musta forgot.
* * * *
Quick note about Bad Left Hook in 2011: We’re going to be making some major changes to the site that I hope everyone enjoys, because I’m incredibly excited about what’s going down behind the scenes right now. We’re going to keep a lid on it until the day comes, so don’t bother asking for specifics at this point.
But beyond just that, I will say we’re going to take the focus away from singular news stories and go far more in the direction of looser commentary. On a personal level, I’ve felt sort of zombified at times this year because I get into habits of giving you the same boring news updates that you can find anywhere, and I feel like some of my actual personality has dried out, which bores me, so I’m sure it bored some of you. I don’t think anything will much change overall, but it will be rare that we do single pieces of news for a post anymore. There are a thousand web sites where you can get that sort of thing, and I don’t really see the need to be No. 1,001. Don’t get me wrong — all of that stuff will still be here, but it’s going to be a lot less about the news than it is talking about what’s going on in and around boxing. The true spirit of the site sort of slipped at times this year, and that was my fault. I let that happen and I feel like we got bogged down in trying to be a little too “serious business” about boxing. Truthfully, I find tons of humor in boxing, especially when it’s being all “boxing” about itself. It’s part of what keeps me interested. Without being able to get a chuckle out of some of the things said and done, you wind up driving yourself mad, or at least I do.
Anyway, this will almost certainly be my last post of 2010. I hope everyone has a tremendous amount of booze on the eve of the New Year, but stay safe about it, and I’ll see you in 2011.
